Shards: Supplementary Information
by GreatWyrmGold
Summary: For information and short pieces related to Shards which do not fit in that document. Includes character list.
1. Character List

Warning: I'm going to lapse into Troperese sometimes. I'll try to make sure it's still comprehensible, though.

Warning: Spoilers for all involved works.

RWBY has Loads and Loads of Characters. Worm has Loads and Loads of Characters. Shards has Loads and Loads of (minor) Original Characters on top of the source materials' characters, including some Chekhov's Gun-men. Hopefully, this document will help keep things comprehensible.

This list is alphabetized. Real names and pseudonyms are alphabetized by surname, as are families. Nicknames, codenames, and usernames are alphabetized by the first character; locations and organizations follow the same rule, except that words such as "the" are ignored.

Remember, Ctl-F is your friend! If you can't find a character or name, let me know.

* * *

**Aster Acea**: Doctor and herbalist of Meadow-Creek. Middle-aged.

**Paul Acea**: Nephew of Aster Acea. Orphaned; tries to distance himself from her aunt these days, but still has a talent with plants.

**Dinah Alcott**: Niece of the mayor of Brockton Bay. Possesses powerful precognitive abilities.

**Alec**: AKA Regent, Jean-Paul Vasil. Name assumed by Jean-Paul Vasil. Member of the Undersiders. Possesses the ability to manipulate the nervous systems of humans, usually allowing him to disrupt their movements but also granting the ability to control people, given a sufficient quantity of time with said person restrained to allow him to "learn the controls". Trigger event: Caused by Nikos Vasil, his father. Lazy, rude, clinical sociopath. Son of Nikos Vasil, in a relationship with Aisha Laborn. Weapon: Used to use a scepter with a concealed taser.

**Walta Arthur**: Absolutely nothing. _S__ee Taylor Hebert._

**Minerva Ayala Aurelius**: Small child of undefined age in Meadow-Creek. Possesses an aura which can manifest itself as a visible, yellow repulsive force, for protection, retaliation, or propulsion. Wants to become a Huntress. Friends and possibly future teammates with Rinus Blecher, Amara Gray, and Alice Niles. Weapon: A wooden toy rifle.

**Banesaw**: Fan nickname for a White Fang lieutenant seen in a couple episodes of RWBY. _See Pierre Delany; see also the White Fang._

**Rinus Blecher**: Child in Meadow-Creek. Wants to become a Huntsman. Friends and possibly future teammates with Minerva Aurelius, Amara Gray, and Alice Niles.

**Adelaide Biancardi**: Absolutely nothing. _See Mael de Rege._

**Barker**: Underling of Bitch. Capable of generating clouds of smoke, which he could "detonate".

**Bitch**: Rachel Lindt's chosen codename. _See Rachel Lindt._

**Biter**: Underling of Bitch. Capable of increasing the size of any part of his body. Name comes from a piece of headgear which resembles a bear trap, which can be enlarged along with his jaw to deliver powerful bites.

**Blaine**: Remnan beagle. Afraid of people, but violent when cornered. _See also Rachel Lindt._

**Bonesaw**: Codename of Riley. Biological tinker in the Slaughterhouse Nine. Like her teammates, insane and sociopathic.

**Boris**: Remnan mutt, terrier-ish. Small but stubborn. _See also Rachel Lindt._

**Brockton Bay**: The setting of Worm. A moderate-sized city, notable for having a high density of parahumans.

**Ignatius Carboni**: Bartender at Junior's club. Short-tempered, poor self-image. Wants to be a bouncer.

**Carmine**:Xiong cousin. DJ at Junior's nightclub.

**Cherish**: Codename of Cherie Vasil. _See Cherie Vasil._

**Coil**: Supervillain in Brockton Bay, employing the Undersiders, the Travelers, and several independent villains. Possessed the ability to "split" reality into two, one in which he did one thing and another where he did another, discarding the one which turned out more poorly. Was trying to take over Brockton Bay, and nearly successful. Killed by Taylor Hebert, ironically not long after he faked his death.

**Pierre Delany**: Member of the White Fang. Family worked in a Dust-processing plant run by the Schnee family until it was attacked by the White Fang three years prior to the start of the story. Clever, strong, and determined enough that he rose relatively quickly through the ranks of the White Fang, and will likely become an officer soon. Currently running a warehouse owned by the White Fang. Hates the Schnees. Weapon: A chainsaw. _See also the White Fang._

**Rue Delany**: Younger sister of Pierre Delany.

**Odel Downer**: Employee of Junior's. Slightly craven.

**Flechette**: Lily's heroic codename. _See Lily._

**Foil**: The codename Lily intended to adopt upon leaving the Wards. She didn't really get a chance to do so. _See Lily._

**Nina Gagnon**: Absolutely nothing. _S__ee Rachel Lindt._

**Amara Gray**: An orphan in Meadow-Creek. Wants to become a Huntress. Friends and possibly future teammates with Minerva Aurelius, Rinus Blecher, and Alice Niles.

**Grue**: Codename of Brian Laborn. _See Brian Laborn._

**Hagel family**: A rich Atlesian family, many members of which hold notable positions in the Hagel Smelting Corporation. (Because one corporation which exploits faunus isn't enough, am I right?)

**Hasenkamp family**: Large family in Meadow-Creek. They farm, and sometimes rent their spare rooms to travelers.

**Piroska Hasenkamp**: Distant cousin of the "main" generation of Hasenkamps. Works for them, generally doing errands; she feels a bit distant from the family due to not being part of the same nuclear cluster.

**Heartbreaker**: Codename of Nikos Vasil. _See Nikos Vasil._

**Taylor Hebert** (pronounced _heebert_): AKA Skitter. Protagonist of Worm. Member of the Undersiders. Possesses the ability to control bugs and use their senses, plus enhanced multitasking. Trigger event: Being stuffed in a locker full of all sorts of filth that had been sitting for a month or so, as part of a history of bullying, in part by what turned out to be the civilian identity of one Shadow Stalker, a member of the Wards. Ascended through the Undersider's ranks due to her intelligence, resourcefulness, and ruthlessness; currently acting leader of the Undersiders, one of Rachel Lindt's few friends, and in a relationship with Brian Laborn. Weapons: Has used a collapsible baton, a large knife, and pepper spray, and also knows some about fighting with her bare fists courtesy of Brian Laborn, but mainly fights through increasingly creative use of bugs.

**Hellhound**: Official codename of Rachel Lindt. _See Rachel Lindt._

**Raluca Holub**: Former leader of the White Fang. Favored peaceful methods.

**Rini Houtman**: Member of Madson's Huntsman team. Possesses large-scale terra- and botanokinesis. Elderly but lively, eccentric, and mysterious; as far as anyone knows, he's lived deep in the woods all his life. Weapon: A simple wooden staff, and the aforementioned Shaker abilities.

**Imp**: Codename of Aisha Laborn. _See Aisha Laborn._

**Junior**: AKA Hei Xiong. Runs the Xiong crime family in Vale. More suited to handling business than criminal politics and such.

**Olivia Kennard**: Member of the White Fang. Poor, unemployed Valish citizen; joined the White Fang in part for change, in part for employment. Worked as a guard before her work ethic and loyalty caught the attention of Pierre Delany. Lacks confidence and a bit of a perfectionist, but otherwise a decent leader. Notable subordinate of Pierre Delany. _See also White Fang._

**Aisha Laborn**: AKA Imp. Member of the Undersiders. Possesses the ability to force memories of her out of observers' minds; long-term memories return, but this still allows her to be essentially undetected—to the point that she literally stabbed Bonesaw in the eye without any of the Nine (except Cherish; see next sentence) noticing her. Exotic senses, such as Cherish's emotion sense and the ability of Grimm to sense humans, are not affected by this power; however, she can actively use it to wipe short-term memories, such as with Nero. Younger sister of Brian Laborn; in a relationship with Jean-Paul Vasil. Weapons: Likes knives.

**Brian Laborn**: AKA Grue. Member of the Undersiders. Possessed the ability to generate large amounts of darkness that also muffled sound, various forms of radiation, and certain superpowers. After a second trigger, the speed at which he generates darkness was reduced (making it difficult to blanket entire blocks in darkness as he had done in the past), but it now moves faster and not only are its power-dampening properties generalized and enhanced, but he can now actually copy powers. Trigger events: Some event involving defending his sister from his mother's boyfriend (it's kept vague), and then being helpless to save Taylor from Bonesaw (due to having been vivisected by Bonesaw—he got better). Also a big, muscular guy, who learned a bit of a bunch of martial arts, including boxing courtesy of his father. Former acting leader of the Undersiders, elder brother of Aisha Laborn, and in a relationship with Taylor Hebert. Weapons: Right and left hooks.

**Lily** (no surname given): AKA Flechette, Foil. Former member of the Wards, lieutenant of a semi-official member of the Undersiders for several hours before they were sent to Remnant; starting to regret her choice. Possesses the ability to "charge" items (fastest with metallic ones, but possible with others, such as cloth), making them unaffected by any force for a certain amount of time. Possesses secondary power granting her an enhanced sense of timing, which among other things lets her precisely time her primary power so the projectile is left sticking out of the target rather than completely piercing it and the various buildings and innocent civilians behind the target. Wildbow's Word of God states that she is an orphan, which lets her easily be moved to any city which needs some muscle; Brockton Bay was such a city. In a relationship with Sabah. Weapon: Used an arlabest containing a notable amount of tinker tech.

**Lina**: Remnan rottweiler. Large scar over left half of head. Aggressive. _See also Rachel Lindt._

**Rachel Lindt**: AKA Bitch, Hellhound. Member of the Undersiders. Possesses the ability to transform canines she touches into large creatures, mainly made of nonliving organic matter but with a sac in the middle, containing both fluid and the body of the dog. These creatures have no skin, instead being covered in tough muscle and plates and spines of bone. As a secondary power, her psychology was altered to be more canine, allowing her to interact with her dogs more naturally. Trigger event: Being forced to watch her stray dog trapped in the pool to drown by her foster mother, causing the dog to transform and attack her foster family. Semi-feral child, rescued by child protective services before being sent to a number of ill-fitting foster homes. Her lack of education and social skills was not in any way helped by being a homeless fugitive or by her secondary power; she has great difficulty interacting with other human beings in a non-hostile manner and can barely read or write. Essentially her only true friend is Taylor Hebert. Weapons: Fists and dogs.

**Sharrue Lutetia**: Equine faunus; was a servant for a Valish council member, then fired. The White Fang accepted him as a member, intending for him to mostly be a messenger and courier, but he eventually convinced them to let him be a warrior.

**Arthur Madson**: Unofficial Huntsman. Second son of a family of rich Valish merchants. Heavily wounded in a duel at a young age (he got revenge), but wished to become a Huntsman anyways. Found three like-minded individuals. Stubborn but persuasive. Weapons: Fathersblood the Classic Steel-Bladed Sword, plus Dust grenades.

**Melanie Malachite**: Employee of Junior's, Militades's twin.

**Militades "Militia" Malachite**: Employee of Junior's, Melanie's twin.

**Meadow-Creek**: Village near the edge of Vale's Civilized Zone.

**Min**: Nickname used by Minerva Aurelius. _See Minerva Ayala Aurelius._

**Napolini family**: A family of mouse faunus who moved from Meadow-Creek to Vale at the same time as the Undersiders went there, to join the White Fang.

**Lily Napolini**: A young mouse faunus with pink hair and eyes.

**Nardi Brak**: Member of Arthur Madson's Huntsman team. Born on eastern islands near Vacuo; was an adviser for a time before fleeing to Vale. Arrogant and abrasive, known to insult people at the slightest excuse. Weapon: Lightning Wit the Folding-Bladed Sniper Staff.

**Nero**: Codename used by a minor villain seen in one of the epilogue chapters of Worm. Aisha Laborn confused his name with Nemo, causing her to wipe his short-term memories of several fish puns.

**Alice Niles**: Child in Meadow-Creek. Wishes to become a Huntress. Friends and possibly future teammates with Minerva Aurelius, Rinus Bletcher, and Amara Gray.

**Ovid Oak**: Not a professor, sadly. Animal-lover with a wide variety of pets; keeps sheep. Hired Nina Gagnon during her time in Meadow-Creek.

**Monty Oum**: The guy who wrote RWBY.

**Parian**: Codename of Sabah. _See Sabah._

**Mael de Rege**: Pseudonym chosen by Jean-Paul Vasil to blend in with Remnant society. _See Alec._

**Regent**: Codename of Jean-Paul Vasil. _See Alec._

**Ruby Rose**: Huntress-in-training. Half-sister of Yang Xiao Long.

**Summer Rose**: Huntress in Vale. Deceased. Mother of one Huntress, stepmother of another.

**Sabah** (no canonical surname): Semi-official member of the Undersiders. Possesses telekinesis, but limited to small objects unless she can "soak" it into the weave of a material; typically manipulated thread and cloth, often creating what appear to be walking stuffed animals. Trigger event: The worst of a string of bad nights spent alone, stewing in frustration, in the wake of both dealing with a persistent boy and her father's death by heart attack (mostly the latter). Basra native who moved to Brockton Bay in high school along with her family. Studied (first math and engineering, then fashion) at Brockton Bay's college, which went through the entire story without being named. In a relationship with Lily.

**Raul Sangua**: Member of Arthur Madson's Huntsman team. Vacuoan; worked in Atlas, first as a soldier then as a fencing teacher, before coming to the Vale region on Madson's request. Weapon: Sword the Multi-Action Dust Rapier. (He has been accused of being uncreative, but claims he is merely describing what it is.)

**Schnee family**: A rich Atlesian family, many members of which hold notable positions in the Schnee Dust Corporation.

**Siegfried Schnee**: Patriarch of the Schnee family and CEO of the Schnee Dust Corporation.

**Remus Schreier**: Shepherd in Meadow-Creek.

**Shu Li**: Left-hand man of Junior. Rebellious.

**Skitter**: Codename of Taylor Hebert. Assigned by the PRT. _See Taylor Hebert._

**Najwa Sturm**: Absolutely nothing. _See Regina Sturm._

**Rajnish Sturm**: Absolutely nothing. _See Brian Laborn._

**Regina Sturm**: Absolutely nothing. _See Aisha Laborn._

**Tanin Dagmar**: Absolutely nothing. As with Lie Ren and some real-world Eastern cultures, the surname comes first. _See Lily._

**Tattletale**: Codename of Lisa Wilbourn. _See Lisa Wilbourn._

**Tt**: Username used by Lisa Wilbourn on Parahumans Online. Likely a throwaway account. _See Lisa Wilbourn._

**Tukson** (only one name known): Owner of Tukson's Book Trade and member of the White Fang. Dissatisfied with the direction the White Fang has taken of late, and wants to get out; working up the courage to leave.

**Undersiders, the**: A group of teenaged (mostly) supervillains (some only technically) and their subordinates. Arranged by Coil as part of his plan to take over the city. (It should be noted that the other team he hired, the Travelers, was also composed of teenagers, and that Dinah, likely among his greatest assets, was _also_ a minor.) The first three members were Bitch, Grue, and Regent (order of recruitment unknown), followed by Tattletale; these committed several crimes before being joined by Skitter (then unnamed), who intended to infiltrate them; she lost heart a couple of times, but rejoined regardless. After Leviathan attacked Brockton Bay, Grue's younger sister triggered and joined as Imp. Skitter recruited Parian as an associate. They had three subordinate capes: Barker and Biter under Bitch, and Flechette (rechristened Foil) under Parian, who offered to join as a lieutenant. Skitter, Grue, Tattletale, Bitch, Regent, Imp, Parian, and Foil are the main protagonists of Shards. S_ee also Alec, Taylor Hebert, Aisha Laborn, Brian Laborn, Rachel Lindt, Lily, Sabah, Lisa Wilbourn._

**Vale**: One of four kingdoms in Remnant. Notable for being a mercantile and cultural center of the four kingdoms, due to its central location and gregarious traditions.

**Cherie Vasil**: AKA Cherish. Member of the Slaughterhouse Nine. Possesses the ability to temporarily alter emotions of those within a wide radius. Tried to have Regent killed by suggesting him as a candidate to the Slaughterhouse Nine. Daughter of Nikos Vasil, sister or half-sister of Jean-Paul Vasil. Weapons: Suicide.

**Jean-Paul Vasil**: Birth name of Regent. _See Alec._

**Nikos Vasil**: AKA Heartbreaker. Possesses the ability to alter peoples' emotions, which gives him (among other things) an army of brainwashed beautiful women/consorts, an easy life, and an easy way to discipline his children. Villain in Toronto. Father of Cherie and Jean-Paul Vasil, as well as a few other parahumans and several unpowered children. _Do not see also Pyrrha Nikos._

**Amund Volk**: Current leader of the White Fang. Prefers violent tactics.

**White Fang, the**: Originally a group of faunus fighting for equal rights, until Raluca Holob stepped down and was replaced by Amund Volkov. Now, they are little but a group of terrorists, reaping fear where the old White Fang tried to sow love. Their efforts have resulted in some changes, but much greater hatred of the faunus. Notable for their actions against various corporations exploiting faunus labor.

**Lisa Wilbourn**: AKA Tattletale, Tt. Member of the Undersiders. Possesses what is effectively superhuman intuition, sufficient to allow her to (at one point) deduce a man's cell phone password by looking at him. Was recruited by Coil after Alec, Brian, and Rachel. Weapons: Has used pistols and grenades, and is also an expert at psychological warfare.

**Ryan Wolan**: Young hunter in Meadow-Creek. Wants to be a Huntsman.

**Yang Xiao Long**: Huntress-in-training. Aggressive and boisterous. Half-sister of Ruby Rose. Smashed Junior's club.

**Hei Xiong**: Real name of the crime lord known as Junior. _See Junior._

**Zork**: Remnan mutt, largely some kind of sheepdog. Dark fur. Trusting. _See also Rachel Lindt._


	2. Aura and Superpowers (Worm Spoilers)

**_The following contains spoilers on the nature and origin of superpowers in Worm._**

**_It is _****_recommended _****_that you not read further if you do not wish to be spoiled._**

_(There's technically a RWBY spoiler, too, but most everyone figured it out within a minute of seeing the robot in question, who I'm not even identifying.)_

**Right,** with that out of the way...in a crossover like Shards, what I consider the most problematic part of planning is figuring out how the supernatural powers of the two universes interact. Not only is it difficult to logically consider such things, with what little information we have and the frequency of authors not seeming to have a firm grasp of the limits of given powers, but readers tend to react poorly when they don't understand why things happen. Thus, I have chosen to write on how I see the supernatural powers of Earth Bet and Remnant interacting.

**First** off, do passengers have Aura? Why not? It is stated that people and animals do, although the Grimm do not. The reason for this is stated to be because Grimm are "the manifestation of anonymity". This and other quotes imply that Aura is based on soul and/or identity; it's uncertain if (say) bricks, trees, or planets have Aura, but passengers and the Entities they spawn from are on the whole more like animals (which are explicitly stated to possess Aura) than inanimate objects. In any case, there is also an advanced robot with Aura; if such an intelligence has enough of a soul to use it as a sword or shield, why wouldn't the passengers?

**Second,** can passengers' Auras be awakened? We only see humans (well, one human) get their Aura awakened, but we also see a dog be used as a projectile without so much as getting its fur dirty; Aura is the most obvious explanation (unless we want to invoke "the animator didn't want the dog-punter to come off as a complete monster" and leave it at that), so it's pretty clear that non-human Auras can be awakened, presumably by humans. The passengers are pretty deeply integrated with their hosts, changing both body and mind to varying extents; for the purposes of Shards, I've assumed that attempting to awaken the Aura of a parahuman awakens that of the passenger simultaneously if the awakener doesn't try not to (which obviously couldn't happen without knowledge of passengers, the ability to detect them, or ideally both). It should probably go without saying, but I'm also assuming that awakening multiple Auras at once is less efficient than awakening them one at a time.

(**I'll** take this opportunity to share a headcanon about Aura that doesn't relate directly to superpowers, though it will be coming up in Shards. Essentially, I assume that the amount of Aura one has is not fixed, and can be increased with training or practice, although with diminishing returns. Some people, like Jaune, have naturally higher "Aura capacities"; I've toyed with the idea that Remnan humans have evolved to have higher Aura capacity than Terran humans since it matters to them, but I'm still on the fence about that. Tying back to passengers, awakening multiple Auras at once, whether human or not, decreases their "maximum Aura" at the start but not their natural "Aura capacity"; in a video game analogy, you start at a lower level but once you hit level 10 you have the same number of "hit points".)

**Parahumans** can do essentially the same things with Aura as non-para humans can—defense, offense, limited sensory abilites, Semblances, possibly transhumanism, etc—but what about their passengers?

1\. The passenger is largely part of the host, so the host can draw on the passenger's Aura. (In all cases, I assume the host's Aura is drawn on first if it should make a difference. I also assume that the sum of a newly-awakened parahuman's "passenger" and "host" Aura would be less than what it would be if the parahuman was just a human.)

2\. The passenger learns to harness and/or account for Aura. The exact effects of this vary from power to power, but in general I'm planning to keep it minimal. A Thinker power might get more accurate results when dealing with Aura, Semblances, or Dust (another of my headcanons, this one for Worm, is that passengers don't "know" how to deal with anything but mundane forces and other superpowers). Trump powers might work on Aura-based phenonena as well as superpower-based ones (e.g, Hatchet Face would shut down not only superpowers but also Semblances and even more typical use of Aura). Masters and other capes which create things might have those things sustained by the user's Aura, while others with powers that Aura interferes with would get the ability to "pierce" Aura (likely for a "cost" of Aura); as noted, the Aura would first come from the host's Aura, because passengers are dicks. A few might apply their effects to the user's Aura as they do to the user, although since Aura is a manifestation of one's persona, this might have unintended side effects...

3\. If it ever came up, the passenger's Aura would probably be used (before the host's, even) to defend against attacks on the passenger itself, say if they were aimed from whatever universe the shard is actually located on.

4\. Can passengers get Semblances of their own? Probably, although it won't be easy; finding and using your Semblance seems to require extensive training of one's Aura, and as noted the passenger's Aura isn't likely to get much work. Still, it's not impossible; a parahuman wanting to awaken his passenger's Semblance might try wearing down his personal Aura and training just what remains, if he could distinguish between the two (typical Aura-detecting equipment probably wouldn't), and direct attacks on the physical shard (see #3) would probably also work fairly well. Semblances are implied to reflect the user's personality and/or self-image, however, and neither passengers nor entities really have either. They might build off of the host's Semblance (if any), the same way one's superpower (given by one's passenger) sort of builds off of one's personality; I don't expect passenger Semblances to come up for a while or be a significant part of the story once they do.

**Now,** aren't the passengers just shards of greater Entities, and hence you can't awaken a passenger's Aura without awakening that of the whole Entity? In a way, they are all one, but...well, my explanation requires both a brief biology lesson and an explanation of how I see the Entities' reproduction working.

First, consider the various types of organisms which operate in units greater than the individual organism; I'm imagining the individual shards as the individual organisms, and the Entities as the greater units. The first such organism I'll be bringing up is called the Portuguese Man of war (which is presumably a slight towards the Portuguese navy). It looks something like a buoyant jellyfish, but is in fact in a cousin taxa, more closely related to hydrozoans. Aside from its resemblance to jellyfish, the main notable attribute of the man-of-war is that it's actually a number of separate but integrates organisms (zooids), each specialized for different tasks. Some sting and paralyze prey, others catch or digest it, and so on. Despite this, most would think of it as a single organism (including, quite possibly, the man-of-war, if it could be said to have a consciousness; it certainly acts as one). Contrast with this colonial insects (I'll be focusing on termites, since they're more specialized than other well-known colonial insects). Like the zooids of a man-of-war, the individual termites are specialized for various purposes—workers, reproductive termites (usually two castes, for obvious reasons), a couple soldier-related castes. Like the man-of-war, the termites cooperate much like one complex organism, but they act independently more than the man-of-war, and most would consider them many separate organisms (again, likely including unusually intelligent termites).

I imagine that entities travelling through space, looking for a new world, are much like Portuguese men-of-war; their shards are all connected and work together; they're essentially one entity, and if someone awakened its Aura, all shards which broke off would have awakened Aura as well. Once they arrive, they break off most of these "zooids" break off, separate as worker or soldier termites; awakening any of these shards' Auras awakens the Aura of that particular shard, and probably ones which bud off, but not any others. When the cycle is complete, all of the shards on the planet gather and are split off into a bunch of new Entities or Entity pairs (probably including the cores of the original ones, surrounded with new shards) as they are sent flying into space; Entities with awakened-Aura shards might be able to awaken their own Auras, which would doubtless transform future cycles.

(It probably bears noting that Word of God states that "shards" aren't really the quanta of Entities any more than, say, grams are the quanta of steel; many passengers can be considered multiple shards put together or one split, and they all work much the same regardless. So, each of the individual "termites" is a "man-of-war".)

Anyways, to wrap this up, let's consider Aura and Changers (or Shifters). These parahumans have powers which change their physical form; I've noted that my Aura headcanon involves the defense it provides essentially working by making the user resistant to changes. How does Aura affect these parahumans? It depends. Aura tries to make you closer to your self-image; a cape who revels in his/her transformed state might find it easier to change into and stay in the other form, while one who considers said state to be someone else would find it harder. It has a bit to do with how well the passenger and the host "get along," and a lot to do with the changes involved.


	3. Roman's Report

"Is it safe to say that that didn't go to plan?" Roman asked as Cinder came into the cockpit.

She ignored his statement, as she did so many. She was supposed to be the big-picture girl, which she thought gave her leave to assume she was the only person in their group with any brains at all. (_Not that she would have been wrong before she started working with me, if the kids are any indication,_ he thought.) Cinder liked to point out that Roman was barely more than a glorified highway robber before they started working together, but conveniently left out that she had completely failed every major heist and crime she planned before that point. She clearly remembered, though; she tolerated him no matter what he said, and treated him more lightly than Emerald or Mercury. In return, Roman held his tongue with her more than he might be inclined to. They were bound by mutual fear of losing what they made for themselves together.

Instead, she said, "Were there others?"

"Other what?"

"Other children you fought in the store," Cinder replied sharply.

"Oh, of course, silly me. Not like I'm stopping a hundred-ton chunk of metal from slamming into the ground or anything here..." Roman had a gift with vehicles; he once boasted to Cinder about one time he robbed a jewelry store, only to discover his getaway vehicle had been stolen. He hot-wired a nearby car in under twenty seconds and got away cleanly. _And Cinder just said I should have been more careful where I parked the car. Like she or her kids could have stolen the jewelry at all..._ Still, even for the gifted, keeping a tiltjet flying was a chore.

The kids... "Why'd you ask about kids, specifically?"

Roman didn't expect her to answer, and she didn't. "So they were children."

"Oh, like you did so great. Did you fumble every shot, or were you trying to—"

"If you must know, that was due to the boy on the roof. He was disrupting my aim by forcing my arm to twitch while I fired."

_And now he has a name,_ Roman mused. He found it convenient to label anyone he didn't know the name of, and most groups without official names. It helped him think; maybe it was a quirk of how his mind thought, or some unknown facet of psychology, or maybe it was just faster to think "Twitch" than "the boy in white who climbed onto the roof".

"So, you know about him, clearly. You also saw the girl in red, and the Huntress, although she's an adult so you wouldn't care. Did you see the blonde?" Another of the brats he hadn't named yet.

"Not the Huntress, I assume?"

"Aren't you clever. No, the blonde girl lying unconscious on the roof when you flew up. She was squatting on the roof for some reason, but ran when she saw me coming. Didn't know where, so I shot her. Stopped her pretty well." It occurred to Roman that the girl might actually be dead. Between her and Shadow, that's two possible murders. Thieves were common crooks, worthy of a certain amount of apathy if they evaded capture, but murderers were different.

Cinder frowned. "I didn't notice. Could you describe her?"

"Blonde, purple dress, running away."

"Hm. And were there others, besides her?"

String and her friend, Bugs, the big girl, and of course Shadow. "A couple girls, looked like friends. One was aggressive, wore yellow, dark hair, pale skin, pretty strong—broke one of those swords by stomping on it, the other was a lot shorter and terrified, pink dress, dark skin. Another girl, came late, pretty sure she controls insects somehow. Pheromones, maybe? I'm no scientist. Tall, skinny, blue dress, broken high-heels, curly hair, brown. Had a knife that I stabbed this big, dark-skinned guy with, though I'm not sure he was a kid."

"Tell me about him anyways."

"Black coat, black hair, brown skin. Made black shadows. I thought they were his Semblance, but if he has Aura, I'll eat my hat. And then there was this girl. She's a blonde, too, but you wouldn't mistake her for the other blonde. Might mistake her for a man, though. Red and brown vest and such, pauldron, dog head on her chest. Makes Emerald look polite and Mercury patient, I'd wager."

"Was there a sixth girl?"

"Red, of course."

"Other than her."

"I don't think so. Why, you expecting someone?"

"Roman, do try to trust me. I'll tell you about it when you need to know it." The same song she'd sung a thousand times and a thousand ways.

"If they're a problem, I think I need to know it."

"If they are a problem, I'll tell you."

"Of course, of course." It always bothered Roman when she did that. Roman was the working man, either doing jobs or talking with people. If he didn't know, and it came up, it would mean failure. Cinder didn't see that; it was like she was afraid he'd get captured and tortured. Who could be that paranoid? What secrets were worth that risk?

Roman didn't know, and in the end, it didn't matter. He needed Cinder, and Cinder needed him. Neither of them liked it, but neither of them was going to change it.

Roman kept flying.

"You mentioned having stabbed the one?"

"Yeah."

"Was he dead?"

"I'm no doctor, but he looked alive when he fell down. After that...there was a bomb, and I stabbed him in the gut. Here's hoping medical care came soon."

"Indeed. It would be quite unfortunate if someone brought unwanted suspicion on our operation. For the someone, in particular."

_Like you'd have the guts._ "If anyone killed him, it was the idiot who threw the bomb, or maybe some idiot paramedic who didn't think the guy with a bleeding gut wound was a bigger priority than the girl with bruises and bug bites. We're covered."

"I certainly hope so."

_I get it._ That was another of Cinder's flaws. Roman was flexible, Cinder wasn't. He figured things put on the fly; she made these great, complex plans that she had to rebuild every time some kid bumped into a corner. And then she blamed Roman for the kid. He had no doubt he'd be getting flak about throwing away the only bit of Dust they actually managed to steal in a failed attempt to cover their mistake. But that wouldn't be now; Cinder went back into the bay to brood or plot or whatever she did when she was alone. Meanwhile, Roman pictured tomorrow's papers. What would the front pages read? "Torchwick Strikes Again; Dust Shops Beware"? "Torchwick Barely Foiled; Would-Be Heroes Hospitalized"? "Torchwick Murders Child?" If he was two hours short of his eighteenth birthday, the papers would conveniently ignore the inches that he had on Torchwick, the fact that if Shadow had Aura he could have beaten Torchwick within an inch of his life, that anyone in his position would mistake the shadows for a Semblance.

Worries could wait until tomorrow. Tonight was what mattered.


	4. Two and Three

"Cinder Fall," one said. "A sinister name, and she deserves it."

The other nodded, lost in thought.

"Apparently, her long-term goals involve overthrowing the Kingdoms and becoming a god—or close to it, in any case. But she'll never come close on her own. She's too focused on the future and the big picture to make good plans for any one step. She demands too much from people who work for or with her. The only people who are still willing to work with her are a pair of street rats. They're skilled, and so is Cinder herself, but they can't pull off anything _near_ their goals on their own. But they could be what we're looking for."

The other shrugged.

"They have nothing but some level of talent and skill. They are anonymous, unknown. And they are ambitious—Cinder is, at least. We could help them. If Cinder had a clever, charismatic face for her operation, someone to make allies and plans for her, and perhaps someone skilled with covert operations...well, she could do great things. That would more or less solve her issues. Get some new legs for the boy, some decent weapons for the girl, and guidance for Cinder herself. It wouldn't be perfect, of course."

The other frowned.

"The potential issues depend on our approach. If we try to approach them from an apparently inferior position, pretending _we'll_ work for _her_, Cinder may ask us to do things we don't want to do. However, if we approach from a superior position, asking _her_ to work for _us_, I have no doubt she'd try to resist us. But I have a plan, or at least the seed of a couple."

The other raised an eyebrow.

"In the latter case, we could lie about what we want, try to direct her rebellious tendencies to lead her the direction we want her to go. In the former, we would need to avoid letting her know everything we could do, make sure she could only ask of us what we're willing to do for her. Do either those sound good to you? Both?"

The other paused, then nodded.

"Excellent. We both have work to get to, then."


End file.
